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@chisataro
the confetti for a not guilty verdict is actually the funniest fucking thing about ace attorney
it’s like they inherently know their system is fucked to the to the extent that they’ve got the celebration confetti at the ready when they don’t wrongfully incarcerate someone
edgeworth never lost a trial until he faced phoenix wright so the confetti goes off and he’s probably like what the fuck ppfthh pffth phhh that last bit is him spitting the confetti out of his mouth
edgeworth, losing a trial for the first time:
sharing pizza with his little brother ❄️
Bachelors 💗✨
The other night I freed Vah Medoh and then explored Rito a bit more, with the objective of getting sunset refs ^_^
Revali is such an ass lol I love him
FINISHED!!! have ganon and link as kronberg's "David and Saul' piece :)
i have literally never played a zelda game btw i think i got possessed by a ghost to do this
Get them out of my head
Who Am I Doing This For?
So, I’ve already discussed Nanako’s relationship with grief, now it’s time to talk about her father Ryotaro, whose relationship deserves equal time analyzed.
Ryotaro is much older than his daughter, so he processes grief differently than she does. But interestingly, both he and Nanako cope in the same way—hiding it from others. We first hear of his wife’s death from his daughter, when she explains that she has no mother, and that she died in a car accident. She tells the Investigation Team that she is alright and needn’t worry about her. Ryotaro, meanwhile, doesn’t bring his wife Chisato up at all until Rank 3 of his social link.
Ryotaro, however, is implied to have terrible self-esteem. In Rank 3, he tells Yu that he doesn't deserve to be Nanako's father.
Ryotaro also tells Yu that Nanako is his only reason for living when he begs him to save her.
These imply that Ryotaro suffers from survivor's guilt. Now, what is survivor's guilt? It's a grief response where a traumatic event occurs resulting in death, and the "survivor" feeling remorse over living and in part wishing they died instead.
Participants emphasised a strong sense of disentitlement to the life they were living since they perceived themselves as undeserving in comparison to the deceased or they felt they had not done anything to earn their survival. This was described alongside a persistent sense of guilt for surviving in the absence of any apparent wrongdoing, which had a different quality to other forms of guilt: “It’s deeper, it’s stronger… it is a hard thing to describe, it’s a sickening feeling, it’s… if I smashed into somebody’s car and drove off I’d think, “yeah ok I shouldn’t have done that, I should’ve… but I’m gone, tough…”, this is guilt because a person’s life ended, a good friend, a brother…this guilt lasts and lasts, and it’s hard to shake, it’s hard to get rid of, you can’t just say “oh well, he’s dead” it comes back and smacks you in the face.” Common to all participants was that they had “beat the odds” to survive which they perceived as unfair as they viewed themselves to be the “same” as the deceased. This left them with a strong conviction that they should not have survived and a sense of incomprehensibility and disbelief about surviving: “We were all using the same guns, we all had the same magazines, we knew how throw around, roll right, round roll left, take cover but… as you were engaging the enemy, your comrade on your right is not moving, you feel, he’s gone, he’s gone… it doesn’t make sense…” Being ‘in the same boat’ as the deceased, as opposed to having a close relationship, may be an important factor in the perception of inequity. The use of the metaphor “cheating death” by one participant indicates a sense of unfairness and having done something wrong in surviving. Several participants were also left “feeling responsible” for the death of others by surviving. A tendency to idealise the deceased was also noticeable within participant accounts, leading to some participants feeling less entitled or deserving of life in comparison: “I kind of feel like it was my fault really, if he were operated on instead of me he might’ve survived… he would’ve… made it and he would’ve been a good member in society, contributing and doing as he should, that’s how I see it… and I’ve survived because I was put in front and now I’ve come out and everything’s so dark and heavy… I feel like I should be, going everywhere and finding everyone that’s needing a little bit of help and helping them…” Disentitlement to life was indicated in participant descriptions of “existing” rather than “living” life with one participant stating “I’m just waiting for the moment when I will die”. Participants described conflicted feelings about surviving, feeling “happy one minute” and then “it’s just depression”. This fluctuation in emotions and thinking the deceased were “better off” was evident in all accounts.
[Source]
But Ryotaro tries to hide this from everyone prior to the scene where he and Namatame get into the crash. Now let’s look at how he expresses his survivor’s guilt. His expression of guilt cannot be separated from the fact he is a homicide detective by trade, as many sufferers of survivor's guilt tend to hate themselves for their powerlessness to save the person who died, and furthermore, they often tend to question why they survived and the other person didn't. They also often want revenge, in a sense, especially if they’re homicide survivors like himself, but hate how they don't know how to do it.
Participants felt they did not deserve or earn their survival in any way, which drove a strong desire to repair. Making amends for surviving appeared to be an attempt to alleviate or ‘work off’ feelings of guilt. Participants reported a range of personally meaningful attempts of making amends or restoring balance. However, most participants were unable to engage in activities that represented repair, generating frustration and distress: “I’m very down on myself in that, I don’t feel very useful and… to have survived… what I consider at the expense of another… I think do more with life… and it’s frustrating…” Some participants felt repair was about restoring the balance through revenge or justice: “I do feel guilty that nothing’s happened to him, they just got away with it, it is a bit coward not going to… not getting ‘em back, I mean, but that’s just a thought in your mind, you can’t really do something like that.” Participant accounts highlighted that feelings of guilt and disentitlement about surviving generated a need to repair. However, being unable to repair appeared to intensify feelings of guilt and disentitlement to life, suggesting a reciprocal relationship between these themes. Life as “just existing” contradicts the desire to live a more meaningful life. The sense of disentitlement to life appeared to be a barrier to participants feeling they can engage with life and ‘doing’ things that represent repair.
[Source]
Ryotaro's resentment of his inability to save Chisato is the main reason he's so obsessed with finding who killed her. He has to find justice for her, so he and Nanako can find closure. He technically can do something about surviving, which to him means he has to do it. He says in his Rank 8 that his struggling to find who killed Chisato terrifies him. Ryotaro is constantly beating himself up over not being able to find who killed her, because he thinks it means he’s failed her as her husband.
Which is why he, in the animated series, tells Yu he's chasing Chisato's killer down for Nanako's sake rather than his own--he believes that finding the killer will make him worthy of being her father, since his guilt is clouding his judgement. And he's so adamant about it that he keeps working and working. It’s partly what causes him to be so closed off in his earlier ranks. It’s a fear of vulnerability because he doesn’t want to scare Nanako or Yu as he grieves.
Similarly, the suppression of emotion, often thought to be harmful to psychological adjustment, carries both benefits and costs. Individuals who report using a high level of expressive suppression tend to experience less positive and more negative emotion, report lower levels of well-being, and receive lower peer ratings of closeness and likability (Gross & John, 2003)
[Source]
It’s actually mentioned to the Investigation Team by his only friend, Tohru Adachi, that other than himself, Ryotaro doesn’t have much of a relationship with the other cops in the department. And I want to mention Adachi has only been friends with Ryotaro for about a year, having mentioned he first befriended him around spring 2010, which is around the frame where Chisato died.
So Adachi is one of the only people close enough to see the effects of this grief on Ryotaro, albeit he may not be quite aware of what exactly it is as he hasn’t known Ryotaro terribly long. And furthermore, considering how awkward Ryotaro was around Yu in his Rank 1, it’s unlikely Adachi knows how much Ryotaro’s grief affects him, since Adachi himself points out how closed off he is. He probably only vaguely knows that Ryotaro has a wife that was killed, not the extent to which it affects him.
In short, Ryotaro is very isolated, and therefore has absolutely no support because he’s totally denying it to himself. His own best friend doesn’t know what’s going on, and as I’m going to cover, his daughter doesn’t get it either.
Ryotaro also justifies his isolating actions as being for Nanako’s sake, but this utterly screws up his relationship with his daughter Nanako, who is only six to seven. Nanako starts wondering if Ryotaro doesn't love her because of him drowning himself in this murder case.
Ryotaro doesn’t know how to express his grief at all and wants to be strong, thinking he’s doing it for Nanako’s sake. He even asserts she’ll “understand” in his Rank 5. But in reality, Ryotaro just can’t handle his grief and is running from it. You can see it when he tells Nanako to turn off the TV when he sees a case similar to Chisato’s death—he struggles to handle being reminded of it. This is a case of something called complicated grief, which can be summarized as long-lasting acute grief.
The condition of complicated grief, which is also called prolonged grief disorder, affects about 2 to 3% of the population worldwide. This condition is characterized by intense grief that lasts longer than would be expected according to social norms and that causes impairment in daily functioning. Complicated grief can follow the loss of any close relationship. Complicated grief has a prevalence of approximately 10 to 20% after the death of a romantic partner and an even higher prevalence among parents who have lost children; it is more likely when a death is sudden or violent (e.g., by suicide, homicide, or accident) and less common after the loss of a parent, grandparent, sibling, or close friend. [...] As in acute grief, the hallmark of complicated grief is persistent, intense yearning, longing, and sadness; these symptoms are usually accompanied by insistent thoughts or images of the deceased and a sense of disbelief or an inability to accept the painful reality of the person’s death. Rumination is common and is often focused on angry or guilty recrimination related to circumstances of the death. Avoidance of situations that serve as reminders of the loss is also common, as is the urge to hold onto the deceased person by constantly reminiscing or by viewing, touching, or smelling the deceased person’s belongings. People with complicated grief often feel shocked, stunned, or emotionally numb, and they may become estranged from others because of the belief that happiness is inextricably tied to the person who died.
[Source]
The section about avoidance of reminders of the lost is precisely how Ryotaro reacts. We don't know what he did with Chisato's belongings, but we do know that he hid photos of her in the animated series, which confuses Nanako. Not to mention the obvious in his Rank 4 that I just brought up. He also explicitly states in Rank 8 how similar Nanako looks to Chisato. This implies that Ryotaro is running away from Nanako because he keeps seeing Chisato and can’t stand to face her, either.
Especially since he states he’s doing it for her, and with the Rank 3 dialogue that he doesn’t feel like he deserves to be her father, he implies he feels he’s failing her by being unable to find the perpetrator. When the problem is more his commitment to finding said perpetrator. Furthermore, this ties into the social isolation found in people with complicated grief. Adachi is Ryotaro's only known friend, likely because of his proximity to him as an assistant, and he points out how isolated Ryotaro is. Ryotaro himself even admitted in Rank 3, when he stated he didn't deserve to be Nanako's father, that he struggled to relate to her. He explains this by saying Chisato was the closer of the two, but this is also related to his grief. Though Ryotaro asserts he doesn’t deserve to be Nanako’s father, during Nanako’s Rank 5 she instead places blame on herself over the family being disconnected, asserting that Ryotaro is her “real” father, which means in her eyes that she loves him. Furthermore, we see in both social links that Nanako repeatedly attempts to connect with Ryotaro, such as trying to get him to read her bedtime stories in his Rank 3 and trying to talk him into coming to her school in her own Rank 6, which he initially brushes off to her frustration. Ryotaro is actively pushing away his daughter out of grief and self-hatred, making her mistakenly believe he hates her.
Actually, this discomfort is a phenomenon that can happen. One mother actually reports this in a study about how grief can affect your parenting.
Before it was all of us together [and we] were a family; now it’s just him [son] and I. It’s nice to have a laugh, but you still feel that something’s missing type of thing. I think one of those things that parents won’t know until they go through it is that you forget that you’re not all feeling the same thing on the same day at the same time. I’ll have those days when I hear a song, and I’ll just feel so blue. I forget that the kids have those, too. It’s like working with Jell-O. What are you supposed to do? That was a surprise, something I wasn’t expecting . . . to feel uncomfortable with [my son].
[Source]
This is fairly similar to what happened with Ryotaro, as since he struggled with facing his daughter and deceased wife, it affected his parenting. In the animated series it’s shown that Ryotaro removed most memorabilia featuring Chisato, which confused Nanako and made her wonder if he forgot her. Because Nanako’s very different form of grief leads to her wanting to see her mother again more than anything. You can see how Ryotaro’s own grief messes with his parenting in his Rank 5 when he panics when he sees Nanako sick, but decides to take the call from Ishihara instead and runs to him, telling Yu to cover for Nanako.
His social link is mainly about how his grief messes with his relationships, especially with his daughter Nanako, since his intense grief makes him struggle to see anything beyond Chisato’s death. He doesn’t realize he’s wrecking her relationship with the family he has left, as she fears he hates her when he doesn’t at all. As a matter of fact, Ryotaro is afraid. Nanako's Rank 3 shows it when she and Yu go out to do something nice for him, and he scolds her because he's just too afraid of the idea of losing her, even though Yu was there to make sure she was okay—he’s also afraid of losing Yu.
But he mistakenly did something to push Nanako away, since her action was meant to be a gesture of goodwill. During his (and his daughter's) link, Ryotaro slowly realizes the sheer extent to which his grief affects him, and realizes how it's been messing up his parenting. He attempts to justify his behavior to Yu, but Yu isn’t having it since he’s got a clearer view thanks to never having known Chisato, and can see that Ryotaro is making a mistake. Yu consistently points out how Ryotaro’s grief is causing him to run away from his daughter psychologically.
Nanako reaches her breaking point and finally vents out her feelings after running away in her Rank 7, because his blindness and own pain made him not realize how much pain his daughter was in. When she desperately needed him. And they have this exchange in the animated series that makes Ryotaro realize he needs to change.
Nanako Dojima: When Mom was still with us, you and me and Mom would come to this place to pick flowers... it was just the three of us... Ryotaro Dojima: It was... Nanako Dojima: Why, Mom!? Tell me, why did you have to leave me!? I just want to see her so bad...! Ryotaro Dojima: Nanako... Nanako Dojima, between sobs: I can't help but think sometimes you've forgotten about Mom... You hid all her pictures and you never ever talk about her!! Do you hate her now!? Ryotaro Dojima: You've got it all wrong... Nanako: What am I, Dad? Do you hate me too, now? Ryotaro: Silly goose... you know I could never hate you... and I'm sorry I made you feel that way.
His own Rank 7 has a pretty good portrayal of him realizing more how much he’s been failing his daughter when Yu confronts him and talks him out of going to see Ishihara for the tests on who killed Nanako’s mother.
He apologizes to her in his Rank 9 by throwing a party. He calls it a celebration of truly being a family, to assert to himself and Nanako that he's going to be a good father to her from here on out and support her in her grieving process, since previously he's failed to do so. But in reality it's more than that: it's an apology to Nanako for his previous mistakes, as well as a promise to be a better father. It also echoes his feelings in Rank 3, which is why when Nanako expresses confusion over becoming a family only now, he replies with saying that they're becoming a real one this time, so she doesn't ever fear he doesn't love her, or that he won't ever run from her again. He contextualizes this to Yu after the party's over.
It's obvious that this is something that Nanako needed, but it's something that Ryotaro needed too. I pointed out earlier how complicated grief such as Ryotaro's can affect someone's sociability, and in Ryotaro's case, nearly completely isolated him. But you'll notice another thing throughout his social link: Ryotaro subtly, slowly but surely, becomes less closed off. During the beginning of his link, he's pretty aloof. His Rank 1 has him being almost solely professional towards Yu, though concerned about his safety. He simply asks Yu whether he's been getting involved with the Midnight Channel Case, and tells him to do whatever else. He also was slower to attach to Yu, being relatively dismissive of what he does so long as he doesn’t get hurt in his Rank 1.
Another note is how Ryotaro doesn’t contextualize anything about himself when Yu requests him to in his Rank 2, confused by his desire to know more about him. But through this link, he naturally starts to confide in Yu, even expressing surprise he did it in Rank 7.
He got support from Yu, and his and Nanako's Rank 10s show how he's starting to open up to and support Nanako. Nanako talks about the first open conversation she and Ryotaro had about Chisato, where they reminisce about the flowers in Samegawa RIver. And Nanako, crazily enough, tries to help her dad. Which she’s already been doing since he still hates himself and literally said she’s the reason he’s alive. But she doesn’t know that. The two are now actively connecting, and Ryotaro isn’t pushing Nanako away anymore.
And in Ryotaro's own Rank 10, he takes Nanako to said river. He mentions he’s still planning on working on the case, but states that he’s doing it simply because it’s his job now. He refuses to prioritize it over his relationship with Nanako. It’s been making him worse off.
But even after he and Nanako reconcile, it doesn't wipe away the fact that both Dojimas are very traumatized by Chisato's death, and haven't quite healed yet. The game doesn’t pretend that everything is fine at all, just tries to show that the relationship between the surviving Dojimas has been salvaged. Ryotaro acts pretty reasonably during the Nanako and Namatame arc, since he's trying to save his daughter's life. He immediately mobilizes the police and chases after Namatame, which leads to a car crash that injures him since Namatame dove into the TV. Dojima’s Rank 9 actually foreshadows what happens—he mentions he feels terrified that he’s going to lose his family again.
But what happens after shows that even though he’s reconciled with her and is trying to get better at parenting, Ryotaro has yet to totally recover. He’s still frightened of losing everything again. Losing Nanako. And I think he’s especially afraid here if the two are maxed, because he just tried to patch things up with her and now she’s in danger of dying. Once he’s hospitalized, the minute he can walk, even though he shouldn’t, he keeps wandering around the hospital looking for Yu and Nanako, desperate to know that they’re both okay. Adachi apparently repeatedly has brought Ryotaro back to his hospital bed, and watched over him to make sure he didn’t just wander around. (When Tohru Adachi of all people is being responsible then you know things are dire.) He even bluntly tells the nurse he doesn’t care about his own health, temporarily forgetting that if he dies, Nanako likely won’t have anyone left.
Ryotaro’s self esteem hasn’t improved yet, since he just started opening up. He has learned to prioritize his daughter at this point and is working towards that, but still doesn’t think enough of himself to care for his own health. He beats himself up over not being able to protect Nanako when here, he genuinely did his best and was in over his head. I had both Dojimas maxed out every time I played through these scenes, and he still would always say that.
He always says this because Ryotaro is still in a fragile state, just much better than he used to be. It just goes to show that he (and Nanako) have a long road to recovery, and all they can really do is support each other--especially Ryotaro to his daughter. He is her primary caretaker, after all. And complicated grief is a horrible thing to deal with. It can take years for you to recover from the trauma. This reconciliation and this beginning of a real bond between the Dojimas is just that: the beginning. Neither of them are quite stable yet, just stabilizing. And I think in this case, when it comes to Namatame, Ryotaro is still afraid. He once again feels powerless and like he can’t do anything about his family being in danger. I have to appreciate that the game understands that recovering from trauma and grief is difficult and that the process is very, very long, and that establishing support networks is only the beginning to the Dojimas’ long road to recovery and finally healing and moving on from the death of Chisato.
Why Did You Leave Me?
I want to talk about Nanako’s dungeon and her relationship with grief, and how this grief in part informs her relationship with her father throughout her social link.
The first thing we learn about Nanako’s dungeon is a “warm feeling,” which is implied to be Nanako’s nostalgia for her mother, Chisato Dojima.
Nanako first mentions that her mother, Chisato, is dead in Rank 1 of her link after Yosuke jokes that he and the Investigation Team could maybe whip up something better than her mother’s cooking. But during that, she tells the Investigation Team not to worry, as she has her dad, and now her newly nicknamed brother on her side.
But this clearly isn’t the end of the story. After all, she’s 6 and already experiencing loss. In Rank 4 of her social link, she asks Yu how death works, and asks what happens to a person when they die. To which Yu can guess or he can honestly tell her he has no clue. But if he guesses the “going to heaven” dialogue option, Nanako has a pretty interesting response.
Now, it totally makes sense that this is something Dojima told her, because it’s clearly what informs what her dungeon looks like. When we actually enter Nanako’s dungeon, literally called “Heaven,” Rise comments that it’s… like a storybook version of heaven. It has an almost fairytale castle entrance, with flowers all around it, and the Investigation Team quickly realizes the central theme of the dungeon: grief. And when my team and I played blind, Yukiko’s player astutely commented: “Oh, this is going to be twisted.”
Quite a few of Nanako’s lines in Rank 1 are echoed on the fourth Paradise of her dungeon, where she admits she misses her mother Chisato, but says she isn’t lonely because she has her dad, brother and his friends. But Kanji, who wasn’t present in her Rank 1, sees right through it.
And of course he did, as Kanji's situation is the most similar to Nanako's--he is a boy whose father died when he was a child--so he was old enough to remember, but not old enough to quite process what was going on, and this clearly affected him as shown throughout his social link, such as his Rank 3 where his mother explains that Kanji is afraid of hospitals thanks to his father dying inside of one. Kanji, while having his brain developed enough to have a better understanding of death than Nanako, is still a fifteen year old boy. A big kid, but a kid nonetheless.
Nanako is doing something similar to her father here, in the way she's described to "bear her grief stoically" in her Social Link. She's suppressing her own trauma and telling herself everything is okay. Alan D. Wolfelt mentions this as a way a child can process their grief in his book A Child's View of Grief.
The opposite of regressive behavior among grieving children is the “Big-Man” or “Big-Woman” syndrome. This is apparent when a child attempts to grow up quickly and exhibits adult behavior in an effort to replace the person who has died. This forced maturity can be the result of simply carrying out the instructions of respected adults: “You’ll now have to be the man (or woman) of the house.” Although well-intentioned, adults who deliver this message are unaware of its potentially damaging impact. Sometimes a child unconsciously adopts this syndrome as a symbolic means of trying to keep the one who has died alive. By filling the loved one’s role, a child doesn’t have to acknowledge the full effect of the loss on his or her life.
[Source, page 8]
Which, though Ryotaro did not intend for this to happen, is pretty much exactly how Nanako chooses to handle her grief.
As for the enemies in Nanako’s dungeon, we see creatures like butterflies, which represent rebirth. This is mainly to symbolize Nanako’s desire for Chisato to return, as shown in her Floor 4 dialogue right before she reassures Chisato and by extension herself that she isn’t lonely.
We also see Lexies, which resemble corrupted teddy bears, which I believe is meant to represent how Nanako’s childhood has been surprisingly traumatic for someone so young—she’s an innocent six-year-old, and yet she’s grappling with the weight of having an abruptly dead mother. Furthermore, there's obviously the Mother Shadow, which is titled as "Regal Mother," and since Nanako's dungeon looks like a castle... I'd argue that's meant to represent her seeing her mother as powerful and prospering in heaven.
For the most part, other than this scene where she tries to deny her pain and loneliness, Nanako’s voice is drowned out by Namatame’s, likely since Namatame is a Persona user despite being unaware of it. With the exception of the Ninth Paradise, where she calls out to her parents. She's not only afraid of dying because Namatame is unintentionally harming her, she's afraid of losing her parents again. And it's brutal.
Now, Nanako’s dungeon is also connected to Namatame, too, since he's also grieving, but I have a writeup about him coming soon, so I just want to focus on Nanako for now.
It is totally disproven that she doesn't feel lonely and abandoned in her Social Link, Kanji didn't even need to call her out. In her Rank 4, when she talks to Yu about death and criminals, she mentions how she wishes that her dad would come home more often if people didn't commit so many crimes. And later in her Rank 5, she talks about how her parents and her used to behave as a happy family together.
Speaking of family, Nanako's grief actually vividly colors her relationship with her father in her social link, like the scene in her Rank 5 where she asks what a “real” family is, and panics over the potential idea that she may not be Dojima’s “real” child.
Also, I want to add one detail that Nanako tends to switch between referring to Ryotaro as "Dad" and the more childlike "Daddy," as you see in these images. I wonder if she does this to harken back to the times when her mother was alive. Alan D. Wolfelt talks about this too, in his book A Child's View of Grief. It's a little contradictory to everything else Nanako's doing in order to cope with Chisato's death, but grief can be really weird.
Under the normal stress of grief, children often return to a sense of protection and security they experienced at earlier times in their lives. This need is manifested in different ways: a desire to be rocked or nursed; difficulty in being separated from parents; or requests for parents to do simple tasks, such as tying shoes, that children could previously do for themselves. They may also have difficulty in working independently at school. During this time, a child might also need constant individual attention, be suddenly afraid of the dark, or talk “baby talk.”
[Source, page 6]
Nanako pretty much solely does the baby talk thing out of all of these, as everything else is pretty normal for a kid her age, and even then, that's only by swapping between "Mom" and "Mommy" and "Dad" and "Daddy." I thought it was interesting to note, though.
What's also interesting about this situation is that Nanako’s father, Ryotaro, does echo the sentiment on what family means, and asserts that he doesn’t deserve to be Nanako’s father during his social link during his Rank 3. I won’t get too far into it because Ryotaro needs his own writeup on his own relationship with grief, (which, as of August 31, 2025, exists!) but it is worthy of note.
On one hand, it’s normal for kids with frequently absent parents, such as Nanako and her father Ryotaro, to think that they may not actually be loved by said parents, but in Nanako’s specific case, there’s another layer to this. Her mother is dead. For bereaved children (such as Nanako), they often develop an even greater fear of being abandoned, as Holly Torbic writes about in her article But What About The Children?
They experience fear realizing the world is no longer a safe place. Will I lose others? What will happen to me? Children may be less trusting of letting others in their lives, in fear of being hurt or abandoned again. An 8-year-old wrote this message, "God, give my mom back, I need her more than you."
[Source]
This fear of abandonment isn't only shown by the scene where she asks Yu if she's not Ryotaro's real daughter in her Rank 5, but in the animated series, she asks Ryotaro outright if he hates her and Chisato.
Which stuns Ryotaro, as in his eyes, his actions are for his daughter's sake. What's made clear via his own Social Link is that Ryotaro hates himself, not her. But he's gone so often that she doesn't know that. And furthermore, Nanako brings up in Rank 7 how he doesn't ever bring her up. As mentioned before, if Chisato is gone just like that, then Ryotaro could vanish at any moment too. Even if Yu's still there, she still would lose someone she dearly loves if he dies. The misunderstanding and conflict due to their shared grief can be seen as early as Rank 3 where she and Yu try to make dinner as a welcome-home party for Ryotaro also expresses this, as she tries to show love for her father, but he instead scolds her and Yu for going out at night out of fear of her being endangered, which Nanako takes as him pushing her away, is another scene that expresses Nanako's fear that she's losing him, as it's this scene that will precede Rank 5 and her question of not being Ryotaro's "real daughter," and highlighting her fear of him abandoning her.
This tension comes to a head in Nanako's Rank 7. But I need to contextualize it with Rank 6. In Rank 6, she shows Yu a parent-teacher conference form for Ryotaro to sign, asking which time he can come to visit Nanako's elementary school. (In the animated series, she actually notes all her friends have their parents coming). But Ryotaro, in Rank 7, doesn’t really give a decent answer as to whether he’ll show up or not. And Nanako, cracking under the pressure of her grief and fear, breaks down and runs away from home. Ryotaro and Yu start looking for her (in-game Yu brings the Investigation Team with him to help him look).
She's at Samegawa. And here, in the game, as she talks about how her dad never mentions her mom, Yu tells her that her father is looking for her, which comes as a major shock to her. And in the animated series, Ryotaro himself approaches her to talk. In the animated series, she confronts him on how he never discusses Chisato, and the two of them discuss their memories with her together, which leads to Ryotaro reassuring Nanako that he loves her.
Nanako Dojima: When Mom was still with us, you and me and Mom would come to this place to pick flowers... it was just the three of us... Ryotaro Dojima: It was... Nanako Dojima: Why, Mom!? Tell me, why did you have to leave me!? I just want to see her so bad...! Ryotaro Dojima: Nanako... Nanako Dojima, between sobs: I can't help but think sometimes you've forgotten about Mom... You hid all her pictures and you never ever talk about her!! Do you hate her now!? Ryotaro Dojima: You've got it all wrong... Nanako: What am I, Dad? Do you hate me too, now? Ryotaro: Silly goose... you know I could never hate you... and I'm sorry I made you feel that way.
She realizes in her Rank 8 and 9 upon seeing a family photo from when her mom is alive that her dad is actually grieving as well, but that his grief and her grief look pretty different, which helps her appreciate her father as she realized he didn’t forget Chisato after all.
And Nanako, since she's going through the exact same situation, is pretty empathetic towards her father, asking if he'll ever smile like he did in the family photo, and noting that she feels terrible that he's grieving too. And when she tells Yu about the time she and Ryotaro talked about their memories of Chisato together, she's relieved and thrilled because she's becoming more at ease that her dad won't leave her, and now has a better understanding of her father when the two were so distant at the start of the game.
And in Rank 10… you remember the misunderstanding that occurred in Rank 3? Well, something similar happens, where Nanako and Yu make a welcome-home dinner but instead there is no misunderstanding—neither Ryotaro nor Nanako’s fear of loss is getting in the way of their love for each other. It’s a great way to show how much the Dojimas have gotten closer to each other as father and daughter with Yu's help. Because both of them needed to allow themselves to communicate their feelings to each other, which is helping them both process Chisato's death and move on from it instead of just denying the pain is there.
Nanako's grief led to her fearing abandonment from her father, especially since I want to note she's pretty similar to her dad in the way that they both hide their grief by trying to act stoic about it and not even discussing it with each other. They only really confide in Yu, and that comes slowly as neither Dojima quite trusted Yu at first. But as she comes to understand her own father more and her father begins openly communicating to her about his own grief, the two become closer, since hiding away with it won't do anything. In a way, this story is another portrayal of how trust brings people together and empowers people--it got the Dojimas closer to each other, and better able to process the horrible grief they felt.
I think I never showed this here, so here it is !! I'm sorry for not being active ;w;
Also, my drawings look a little different because I used a tablet this time ! Yeh I bought a new one in like December eheh, I always used my phone to draw up till now !
This is only my interpretation of Link and Zelda's inner thoughts, if it doesn't fit your headcanon, it's totally okay !
I’m in this photo and I don’t like it 😂😭
It's a full time job admiring all the ways that you're inspiring
Rito is HOT
A gift.
I wonder what Revali thought when he gave his gale to Link.
Based on some hylian designs I made for them a hundred years ago :)
So I went into a toys r us that’s going out of business to look for cheap vidya games the other day and
Uh…
They’re just… all Revali
None of the other champions and you can see how few other amiibo are left in the left side of the first image
I did the math and there’s almost TWO HUNDRED fuckin Revalis there
Someone has done a Mistake.